


i'll drown when i see you

by staticbees



Category: Tribe Twelve
Genre: Angst, Gen, Time Travel, firebrand "can't save my cousin's life or the loop will fail" maxwell, me: but what if he was, noah: i should've been there for you, the administrator isn't a tag on ao3, the journal entries forced me to write this, this is so sad alexa play deathtrapexodus reversed, white lies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 11:12:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15435813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staticbees/pseuds/staticbees
Summary: "i will never forgive myself for not being there for you in your most darkest of days, but i thank you for sharing some of mine in whatever form you may have been in. you're still my best friend. i miss you so much man. i miss the whispers."Firebrand visits a young Milo.





	i'll drown when i see you

**Author's Note:**

> title is from i'll drown by sóley

Firebrand steps softly into the dark room. 

 

It’s selfish, visiting Milo. He’s already fulfilled the journal entries; he knows that from the blogspot archive and his own shattered, blurry memories of a time before the Collective. He has no reason to come back. No reason to risk disturbing the careful series of events he’s spent years maintaining. He does anyway. It’s a shallow way, he thinks, of assuaging his own guilt. For not being there when Milo needed it the most. He can’t disrupt the loop, can’t change the timeline. Can’t fix what’s already taken place. But he can slip between the gaps in journal entries, and make better what he’s able. 

 

He’d forgotten the grief, while he was apart of the Collective. Forgotten the ache in his chest, the long nights lying awake in bed, thinking about what he could’ve done differently, about how he should’ve seen the signs, how he should’ve known something was wrong the moment Milo began to run away from something he couldn’t see. After he began contacting his younger self, though, he started to remember, in flashes and feelings and fragmented pieces, like he’d spent years blind to the world and was finally beginning to see. And then he went back for the first time, and started telling his cousin what he needed to know.

 

Milo’s room is messy, blankets and sheets tangled up into a crumpled ball, books and toys littering the floor. There’s a framed picture of Milo, his mother, and one of her many boyfriends sitting on his bedside table, and a star-shaped night light glows dimly by his bed. Firebrand doesn’t remember visiting Milo’s house that often, or even seeing it in videos, but he’s confident that picture hadn’t been there when he had. 

 

Light spills in from the hallway, illuminating the tall, faceless figure lurking in the doorway. He’s standing perfectly still, inky black tentacles creeping along the doorframe, the blank white surface where his eyes should be trained on a dark corner of the room. Firebrand can hear muffled sobs coming from it, and his heart sinks. Milo is staring fearfully at the Administrator, eyes wide, trembling knees drawn up to his chest and arms wrapped tightly around himself. He glances up as Firebrand approaches, cheeks streaked with tears. “He won’t leave.”

 

Firebrand crouches down. “It’s okay,” he reassures him. “He can’t do anything to you as long as I’m here.”

 

Milo sniffles. “You mean it?”.

 

“Yep.”

 

“What if he comes back after you leave?” he asks, voice trembling slightly.

 

Firebrand pauses. “He will. I'm sorry. I can't stop him from coming back. But I can make sure he doesn’t hurt you.” 

 

He still looks scared, but less so, relaxing slightly in Firebrand’s presence.  _ Milo trusts him. _  The thought almost makes him smile.  “You promise?”

 

Firebrand glances down at Milo, eyes pinpricks of light in the darkness. He desperately wants to tell him what’s going to happen, to let him know the future so he can prevent it, but he knows all that will accomplish is another failed loop.

 

He hesitates, swallowing. “I promise,” he says eventually. “Everything will be okay.”

 

The weight of the lie feels heavy on his tongue. 


End file.
